273/365 The End

"The End, The Beginning, The Present"

It is hard to believe that this is already the last day of September.  Time is just flying by.  I don't like it!  However, I do love this time of year.  Fall is my favorite season - watching nature slow down and get ready to rest, seeing the beautiful bare forms of the trees,  basking in all the orange of the falling leaves  and the flowers and, of course, the pumpkins, breathing in the spirit of all of the holidays and celebrations that are packed into the next few months - I find such joy in all that is autumn.

Yes, it brings with it the end of summer and shortly, the end of another year, but soon also the dawning of a new year will be right before us.  I try not to think too much about beginnings and endings, what was and what may be.  The present is much easier to comprehend.  I am where I am right now.  I make a conscious choice to live fully here and now because there will never be another now exactly like this one.  

For now, seize this day.  And tomorrow, do it again.

272/365 Puppy Dog Eyes

"Mama's Boy"

My boy is getting really gray; he will be nine in another month.  He still has quite a bit of energy for dancing for his dinner (or any other food he thinks that he might get), playing frisbee and chasing the cat every now and then.  Interestingly, he will not work too hard at keeping Harley from stealing his rawhide bone.  He is definitely a gentle giant.

Today, Adidas worked hard at keeping me from taking his picture.  He would not be still long enough to focus the camera.  I don't know why he was so adamant about not being the photo subject of the day.  I think this look is the, "Fine. Just get it done already." look.  It is funny to me that several people said he looks like he is smiling.  

I love this picture because reflected in his eye is me with my camera and Weber asleep in the chair.  This is really how Adidas likes things - an eye on everyone.  Below is a close-up of the reflection in his eye.

271/365 In Disguise

"Whatever…"

There is no disguise here, but the prompt also suggested the use of props and being goofy.  I think we got that:-)  The jury is still out on whether the "whatever" is intended for the person on the other end of the phone or me for pointing the camera at her yet again.  I'm fairly sure I know what the verdict is.  Whatever…

270/365 Bubbles

"Bokeh Bubbles"

I love to take bubble pictures; therefore, throughout this year I have already taken many of them.  I was trying to think of a different, somewhat creative approach to today's prompt.  I finally came up with an idea, but never quite got to it during the day.  

When Weber got home, just in case that idea didn't materialize, we went outside to try some of the "normal" bubble shots.  I quickly discovered that it was more windy than I thought.  I was having a terrible time focusing on the fast moving bubbles.   I finally set my camera on rapid shutter in the hope of getting something decent.

What I got was many terribly out of focus bubbles with some amazing bokeh.  I don't think I could have done this intentionally.  Admittedly, the composition here leaves a lot to be desired, but I like all the colors.  It just makes me smile.  I'm sure that I can make my original plan for today's photo fit somewhere else down the road.

One of the reasons that I did not work on the bubbles prompt earlier  in the day was because I was trying to catch up on the assignments for the online photography class that I am taking.  This month we are focusing on simplicity, minimalism and abstract - ideals that I can get behind in all aspects of my life.  I have been looking forward to seeing how I can represent these things in my photographs.  

Here is what my day yielded.

"My Girl's Boots"

This image may be a little too complicated for the prompt, but, nonetheless, I like it for what it is.

"Simply Noted"

Simply noted, I have an addiction to Post-It notes.  There.  I admitted it.

"Life's About Looking Up"

Keep your chin up.  Way up.  There is cool stuff over your head sometimes.

"Bristles and Bands"

This is the broom that I did not use to clean the house today.  The dirt will wait. 

 In addition to taking lots of pictures, I also did some composing and some writing.  All in all, this was a awesomely fun day!  

And tomorrow is Saturday!

269/365 Good-bye Summer

"Good-bye Summer, Hello Fall"

268/365 Notes

"Notes, Notes and More Notes"

I like writing this kind of notes…not nearly as depressing as all of the notes that I have to write to myself so that I don't forget what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to do it and who I'm supposed to do it with or for.

267/365 Get Wet

"Fall Fountain"

I'm in a creative slump they week.  Nothing seems terribly inspired or inspiring.  I know that all artists have these times, but I don't particularly like the feel of it.  That being said, I'm soldiering on hoping that the creative fire is rekindled soon!

I had a composition student who was sick and missed a lesson this morning.  That gave me a free hour that I did not expect to have.  There were many productive things that I could have chosen to do, but I decided to go sit outside with my book and enjoy the fresh air and the sound of the fountain in the courtyard.

I was taken by the colorful leaves floating in the fountain.  I'm not sure where these leaves came from; all of the trees are still covered with bright green leaves.  Whatever their source, I love the colors and liked seeing them resting on the water.

266/365 Breathe

"Breathe On Me"

265/365 Change

"The Twilight Zone"

I am not happy with Apple right now.  The changes that have come with iOS7 have made me quite an unhappy camper - and phone user.  Well, that is not exactly true; I have not yet updated my phone.  Weber updated his.  Thankfully I looked at the changes on his before I made the decision to update mine.

I am not one of those people that is resistant to change just because it is change.  I am all for change if it is change for the better.  With all of the previous Apple updates, I believe that change for the better definitely existed.  Not this time.  This was change just to change and in my opinion (and apparently that of many other people) this is change for the worse.

Apple's goal was to "simplify" the visuals of there apps.  That translates to put everything on a white or light  background with super thin fonts and gray icons.  For me, it is pretty much unreadable, even with all of the supposed "accessibility" features that Apple includes.  

Above is the old resident weather app on my phone and the same app on Weber's with the new operating system.  See what I mean?  I intended this difference to be the point of today's picture.  I guess to some extent it is, but as I was looking at the day's images on the computer, the picture took on a whole other dimension.

Look carefully at the phones.  Weber and I are standing side by side, no Photoshop tricks here.  Notice that his phone says that today is Saturday.  And despite the fact that both phones are displaying the local weather in Dallas, mine say the temperature is 84 degrees and his 64.  Just to further confound the issue, the weekly highs and lows vary by a few degrees each day as well.  It is the same time on both phones.  That is good to know!

Right now, the only thing i like better about Weber's phone and the new operating system is that according to his phone we have another day of weekend!

I hope Apple listens to the feedback of the many people that are unhappy with some of their aesthetic choices with this upgrade and either changes them or allows for user customization.  If something doesn't happen before I absolutely have to upgrade, I'm not sure what I am going to do.

Apple, can you hear me now??

264/365 Brown

"Diggin' Up the Dirt"

263/365 Power Lines

"Power lines - Lifelines"

Today was a day of choices.  I'm not sure that I made the best ones, but I am happy with the ones I made.  I had a bunch of work to do for school.  I unconsciously made the choice not to do any of it today.  I say subconsciously because throughout the day I kept saying, "I'll do this, then I'll grade tests."  With this tactic, I managed to read a bit, do some laundry, clean the kitchen from top to bottom and watch some online photography videos.  Then there was the time I took to have a piece of cake for lunch.  Remember,  I said that I didn't necessarily make the best choices, but the ones I made did make me happy.  I was very happy with that piece of cake!

It rained all day, something we haven't seen in a long time.  That made it a perfect day to hunker down at home, Since I have no classes on Fridays, I can choose to work from home…and, I did.  I really had good intentions of accomplishing so much.  I did, too...just not the things that probably needed to be accomplished.

I have always heard that if you are going to work from home, you should treat the workday at home exactly like the workdays away from home.  You should get up at the normal time, get dressed and follow your normal daily routine.  I was good with step one; I did get up at the normal time.  Then things fell apart.  I didn't do so well with step two and beyond.  I didn't get dressed until about 3 o'clock.  That's what rainy days do to me.  And why do I need to be fully dressed to read and watch videos?    I'm making up for it now.  It is 11:30 pm and I am still fully dressed…shoes and everything.

I also had to make some choices regarding my approach for today's photo.  The prompt was "power lines" from below and or at dusk.  I knew that I wasn't going for a photo walk in the rain looking for pictures of power lines.  I wasn't dressed.  I also knew that with the cloudy skies brought about by the much needed rain, dusk would be nothing inspiring.  Early in the day I made the decision to photograph important "power lines" in our house - the power cords to everyone's computers.  In this case, power lines and life lines are one in the same.

This evening we went out for dinner and to take our resident baker to the store for supplies for this week's bread orders.  It was still dark and gray, but the rain had let up for the most part.  Though it was totally dark by the time we finished all of this, Weber and I went out to see if we could find anything interesting fairly close to home that might better satisfy the day's prompt.  We didn't really find anything except the very cool wind turbines on the local water tower.

"Power(flu) Lines"

This is related to power and it does have very cool lines.

Below is another picture of the water tower taken from a different perspective.  I took this one to address the "from below" part of the prompt.

"Looking Up the Water Tower"

I find this angle kind of interesting.  I also like the big bokeh that I think was created by passing car lights and the heavy mist in the air.

Though it is not as photographically interesting, I chose to use the Mac power cords for my picture of the day because, of the three, it is the one that is the most  accurate representation of our lives.

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes…and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility."  - Eleanor Roosevelt

262/365 Morning Light

"School Day Sun"

I had to scramble for a photo today.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach from 7:30 am to 1. That doesn't allow for much opportunity to photograph the morning sun.  It was barely up as we headed for school.  I managed to grab this shot with my phone as I quickly made my way through the hall at school.  I bet we don't have too many students who know that there is this beautiful stream of light flowing past the performance hall early in the morning.

My 7:30 class is a small but dedicated group.  The class is an out of sequence class, meaning that it is normally taught only on the spring.  Because these students needed this class this semester, they agreed to come whenever we could find space in the schedule and also a physical space in the form of an available classroom.  7:30 am was the only time during the week when student schedules, my schedule and room schedules aligned in perfect harmony.  The one advantage for the students in getting to school this early is that parking is no problem.  

This group also agreed to keep this meeting time next semester for the next course in this sequence.  That is dedication from a group of college students!

261/365 Sugar and Spice

"To Be Me Or Not To Be Me"

I'm not sure whether I'm in a creative slump, a creative surge or maybe just a state of rebellion.  For the last couple days I haven't been able to think inside the box with the daily prompts.  You would think that with all of the cooking that goes on around here that I would have been able to come up with something good for "sugar and spice."  Everything that I thought of seemed boring and uninspired.

Feeling a bit defeated, I climbed up on the couch and put my feet up to watch the news for a few minutes before tackling the night's work.  I had kicked off my shoes; I then smiled when I looked at the colorful socks I had put on twelve hours earlier.  They weren't at all visible with the shoes that I wore to school, but I knew that I had them on.  Because I make a lot of my socks, I have many that are wildly colored like these.  That is part of my personal fashion statement.  Whoa!  Did I just say that I have a personal fashion?  That may be going a little too far…

As I looked at my feet, the wheels in my head started turning.  I could take a picture of one of my feet in its "sweet" boring brown school shoe and the other in its "spicy" sock, sans shoe.  That might have been fun, but I just couldn't get the whole image in my head and make it work.  As I sat a little longer, now paying absolutely no attention to the TV news, I considered various shoe and sock possibilities.  Finally it came to me…go all out.  Shoot  sugary, grown-up lady shoes on one foot  (Yes, I actually own some of those despite the fact that most people who know me have never seen them on my feet.) and the spicy, colorful, fun, more me shoes on the other foot.

It took a few attempts to make this work.  It is hard to focus a camera on something that is not there to focus on.  I am getting better with the timer on my camera and both getting myself in the picture and also being marginally in focus.  I'm pretty happy with the way this came out.  It does make me giggle a little.

Here's to wearing and being whatever makes your heart sing and your feet happy!

260/365 On A Board

'A Splinter of Who I Am"

This is just where I am today…not sure why this spoke to me, but it did.

259/365 What's In Your Bag

'Does Anyone Have A Pen?

The point of today's prompt was to document the things that you carry around in your purse or bag every day.  As I mentioned a few weeks ago with the "back to school" prompt, I don't carry a purse; I carry a backpack.  My backpack is full of stuff that is useful and necessary, but necessarily photo worthy.  I don't want pictures of all the papers I need to grade, or the binders of lessons, or the various notebooks of notes and sketches for various projects.  The only thing that seemed interesting to me in my bag was my pencil case.  It is full of cool office supplies and pens and pencils.  I love pens and pencils, not the fancy and expensive ones, just the fun ones.  I have a specific pen or pencil for every writing task.  There is the journaling pen and the crossword pencil, the composing pencil and the grading pen, the drawing pencil and the sketching pen.  Perhaps this is just a way to try and justify my ridiculous attraction to writing instruments.  All that to say that today I photographed a few of my favorites.

258/365 Relax

"Sunday Soak"

This photo is one of wishful thinking . . .if I had had time to relax, this is what I would have done.  Time soaking in the hot tub is good for both my body and my spirit.

Today was a full day of church and singing, regular Sunday services this morning and then a beautiful Choral Evensong this evening followed by dinner with a dear friend.  Though it was not particularly relaxing, it was a good day.

Now I am enjoying a cafe mocha...

257/365 Typical

"September Saturday Selfie"

The second Saturday of the month, self portrait day.  

I had a busy day that began with a rehearsal this morning and ended with a concert this evening at school. I wasn't sure how I was going to get a selfie done.  These usually stress me out anyway; add to that a full day and it becomes a bad mix.  But, I knew I needed to do it.

I went outside this afternoon to check the bird feeders.  I took my camera just in a case there were a few hungry, not angry,  birds around for me to snap a few quick photos.  There were none.  I noticed that the light was really pretty and thought what the hell; I'll go ahead a try a picture of myself.

I grabbed the lawn chairs and foot stools, set the bird feeder on the stool and my camera on the arm of the chair, focused on the feeder, set the timer on my camera and then replaced the feeder with my face.  This was the outcome.

As far as self portraits go, its OK.  I think that having spent last weekend with the NOAH group made me a little less self conscious about how I look.  This attitude adjustment made today's picture a whole lot easier to approach.  One of the mottos from last weekend in Portland is "I don't give a sh*t!"  It served me well here :-)

256/365 On the Table

"The 13th Table"

Many of the people who are part of the Capture Your 365 community are avid and very talented scrapbookers.  Yesterday many people posted scrapbook type collages as a documentation of the details of their day.  It was cool to see an entire day in snapshots.  Because I worked from home today, I decided that I would give the collage thing a try.

I had tons of work to gone done today and most of that was going to happen at the dining room table so the day's prompt and my schedule seemed to align.  So here is my day from the perspective of our dining room table.

• Since today is Friday the 13th, a calendar shot seemed appropriate; and, it gives context to the otherwise generic shots.
• Yes, the cat is on the table, but she waited until after I was done eating.  And because she is on the table, she is not on the kitchen counters where the bread is being made.
• I had time this morning to look at the puzzles in the paper and drink an extra cup of coffee.
• In the mail this afternoon, we received some anti-bullying materials that Weber and I hope to be able to use for programs at his school.
• I did actually spend some time organizing all of my school papers, hence the hole punch so that all the loose papers could be corralled in the appropriate binders.
• Though we went out for dinner tonight, the lazy susan that lives in the middle of the table reminds us to always "come home for love."

Though I know I don't have the time to document every day like this, it was a fun project.  I think that I will attempt to do something like this at least once a month.  We'll see if I can make that happen.

255/365 Details of the Day

"Real Life"

It doesn't get much more real than this during the evenings at our house.  Sad, but true.  Since we both usually have work to do at night, it is nice that we share a home office.  If we didn't, we'd never see each other!

254/365 On the Schedule

'Scheduled Maintenance"

Wednesdays are over-scheduled even without a visit to the dentist!

253/365 Around the House

"The Evidence"

So, the girls have started a business of a weekly bread baking and delivery service.  I am proud of their entrepreneurial spirit.  Weber and I have become investors in this new venture - it is all taking place in our kitchen.  Therefore, we are "underwriting" their "rent" and utilities.  Last week was their first week to deliver bread.  Though they are still fine tuning the workflow, it was a relatively successful opening week.

This week's photo prompts are focusing on everyday life, photographing  things that you would not normally consider preserving for generations to come.  Today we were asked to document something around the house. See above.  Now you know what our kitchen looks like almost all the time except when it is worse than this.  

It was hard for me to take this photo and even harder to post it.  I don't like mess.  I can't function in it.  This is a personality thing, not necessarily an aesthetic thing.  It took all that I had in me to follow through in this direction but it is an honest depiction of our life today.

I love the fact that the cutting mat in the center has a bright red cow on it.  It makes me laugh because we eat little to meat at home.  So the designated meat cutting mat gets used for anything and everything but meat.

As a way to soften the blow of having taken and shared the above picture as my picture of the day, I had to take this one as well.  I feel better now!

"The Contemplative Baker"

252/365 Routine

'Routine Breakfast"

This week is all about photographing the details of daily life - both the ordinary and the extraordinary.  The above shows how we begin almost every day - well, how we begin after we smack the snooze on the alarm a few times, stand in the shower in an effort to become coherent, get dressed wearing clothes that hopefully match and finally stagger out to the kitchen for that first cup of coffee.  The coffee is accompanied by vanilla yogurt topped with Cheerios and blueberries - sometimes fresh and sometimes frozen.  I suppose there are worse ways to start each day.  f it weren't for the alarm, things would be pretty damn near perfect.

I realized today that I am not very good about photographing the everyday details of my life.  I think about them; I just don't take pictures of them.  This week I am going to try to be conscious of all that makes my life "my life."  I can't carry my big camera to work with me so I suspect that many of the week's pictures, like the one above, will be taken with my phone.  It is routine for me to have my phone with me all the time so I suppose phone pictures tell a significant part of the story as well.

Changing gears . . .

We were in Portland for a NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hypo-pigmentation) Adult Weekend over the past weekend.  We had a great time and I took some pictures.  Two of them were my daily pictures over the weekend.  The others are still safely stored on an SD card - that I left in Portland.

On Saturday night we stayed up super late talking with a group.  Because I did not want to miss posting a picture, I stopped by the hotel business center on the way up to our room to use a hotel computer to post.  (I forget to take the card reader for my iPad so I was a slave to the computers in the hotel.)  Anyway, it was so late and I was so tired that after I posted my picture, I felt that the task had been accomplished and I went to bed - leaving my card in the computer.  It didn't dawn on me that I had done that until the next morning when we were on the train on our way back to the airport.  As is often the case, the love of my life took pity on me and called the hotel.

The hotel clerk that answered the phone was very helpful.  He took Weber's number and said that he would send someone up immediately to look for it and call him right back.  He did and they had found it.  I am so lucky!  During the few moments before the hotel called saying they had found it, I was kicking myself for not having the secondary card in my camera set to backup rather than overflow.  Who needs an overflow card when the primary card is a 32GB card.  Really . . .

The clerk said that he would have housekeeping call Monday to set up a payment method to ship the card.  A payment method?  For an SD card?  Surely they can spring for a stamp and an envelope.  We didn't even ask for our sheets and towels to be replaced while we were there.  Surely we saved them the 46 cents that the stamp would cost.  

They called us back on Sunday afternoon while we were still in the airport waiting to leave Portland.  As it turns out, the hotel will only ship FedEx or UPS so the 46 cent stamp is a moot point.  The shipping costs will be charged to 'the card number on file."  Oh well, I haven't had a chance to even look at most of the pictures that I took so I would have hated to have lost them.  Hopefully I will receive the card sometime this week.

Knock on wood . . .I have yet to lose completely a card with unprocessed photos.  I came the closest that I would like to come this weekend.  When I get the card and have a chance to process the pictures I'll share them along with a few stories about our visit to Portland.

250/365 Black and White

"Water Ride"

We are having a great weekend in Portland.  I am way too tired to write, but I'll catch up when we get home.

251/365 Simple

"Simple Comforts of Home"

Today was a day of travel - planes, trains, and automobiles - and a few blocks on foot.  We made our way home from Portland to Dallas via a brief layover in Phoenix.  Though we had no snafus in our travel plans, it was still and long day and tonight will be a very short night.  After being gone, even for just two nights, it is nice to come home to the simple comforts . . .

249/365 On the Left

"Left on the Street"

We are in Portland this weekend for a NOAH gathering.  I am traveling light.  Translation: I forgot my card reader for my iPad so posting from here is a little tricky; but, where there is a will, there is a way.

I didn't take many pictures today because much of the day was spent in airports and on planes.  Tomorrow we are doing the tourist stuff here in Portland so I'm hoping for a good photography day.

Right now, I am hoping for a good night's sleep!  My body knows that it is two hours later than the clock says.

248/365 Soft

"Soft Touch"

There is nothing as soft as the gentle touch of someone who loves you.

247/365 Cake

"Late Night Treat"

Thank you, Brookie!!!

246/365 Back to School

"School Buddy"

It seems that for most of my life that I have been on the quest for the perfect purse.  Well, maybe not my entire life - just since I had to start carrying a purse and we all know when that was.  And still, at 51, I have yet to find the perfect purse.   Today I had an epiphany and realized why that is.  

As I mentioned a few days ago, school has been a part of my life for 47 years.  For 30 of those years I have been carrying a backpack.  Let's face it, no purse can compete with the utility and practicality of a backpack.  All those compartments and pockets for everything from my iPad to a water bottle.  I can (and do) carry everything I need.  The boy scouts would be so proud of me; I am always prepared - except for the minor little detail that I have lost my keys.  Let me say though, this is not a failing on my backpack's part.  It is a failing on my memory's part.  I took them out of my backpack before we went to England and placed them in "a safe place."  That place is so safe that its whereabouts have eluded everyone in my house!

Back to my backpack … the one I have now is the closest thing to perfect that there is in a backpack - a place for everything and everything inits place.  And it is blue.  What more can I ask for?  All of these things are definitely assets but the "cherry on top" is my Uglydoll, "Cozymonster", that the girls gave me.  He makes me smile every time that I look at him.  He's just so darn cute and has an amazing personality.  Here is a bit of Cozymonster's story:

How can you not love this guy?  And, he's orange!

So, now after all these years, I am giving up my quest to find the perfect purse.  I am making a commitment to a a lifetime of carrying a backpack.  Oh so feminine, right?  Well, in my mind, utilitarianism trumps style every time.

245/365 Still Life

"Flowers is a Vase"

It was nice to see that the day's prompt was "still life" because still life is exactly what I had planned for my day!  We had nothing on our calendar that had to be done. Yay!

We slept late - really late.  Considering that most of our mornings begin at 6 am, anything past 8:30 seems late.  Past 10 constitutes really late!  Oh well, it is the last time that we will get to do that for a long time.  We savored every moment of those sleeping hours.

It was nice to have the time to cook a big breakfast at home.  Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat and though I don't mind cooking it, if you have a big breakfast, it becomes labor, dish and clean-up intensive.  Today, none of that mattered.  We had awesome breakfast burritos -filled with potatoes with hatch chilies, scrambled eggs and a little cheese and pico de gallo.  All I can say is YUM!

After all the hard work of preparing, eating and cleaning up after breakfast, we watched a few episodes of 30 Days.  If you have not seen this or aren't familiar with it, it is one of the few TV programs that I think is a "must see."  It is a little dated having begun its three season run in 2005, but the message is still fresh.  If you are interested, it is available on Netflix.

Despite a lazy day, I did manage to get all of our laundry done, the rest of last night's party stuff cleaned up and my preparation for school this week done.  I consider today to be a successful day!

I also had time to play a little with today's photos.  I am fond of the picture above because of its blue and orange.  That is a no-brainer in my world.  But, I tried some other shots as well.  I really like the photo below.  The single flower in a recycled jar as a vase has a simplicity about it that speaks to me.  Compositionally, it is a little odd, but still, I like it for some strange reason.

 'Flower in a Jar"

I am trying to learn more about conversion to black and white.  It seems like it should be simple.  It's not.  I did convert the picture above.  I like the way the jar converts; the flower takes on a whole different character.  The jury is still out on this one.

"Flower in a Jar 2"

I am thankful for this low-key day, especially since it will be Thanksgiving before we have another one like it.  How depressing!  Forget I said that.

Have a great week everyone!

244/365 Everywhere A Sign

"Not Your Kid's S'mores"

For some time we have been wanting to have a get together at the house.  It has but put off several times in hopes that all of the renovations would be finished.  We are not quite there, but close enough that we decided to go ahead with it tonight.  This seemed like a good way to begin the new school year.

it was fiesta time - empanadas, tacos, refried beans, corn,slaw and homemade salsa and guacamole.  Brooke did all of the cooking - except the carnitas.  Then there was dessert - almond shortbread, homemade coffee marshmallows,and  Mexican dark chocolate all drizzled with goat milk dulce de leche.  I don't usually care for marshmallows, but this was pretty darn good!

We had a fun evening.  I was so busy talking, eating and drinking a little her that I didn't take pictures of any people.  It was kind of strange that I never even thought to get my camera out.  Oh well, maybe next time.